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	Witness in St. Francis Trial Says 1980s Vetting for Promotion Revealed Nothing Untoward about Reardon By Edmund H. Mahony The Hartford Courant April 27, 2011 http://www.courant.com/health/connecticut/hc-st-francis-day11-0428-20110427,0,6704062.story WATERBURY — A former top doctor at the University of Connecticut medical school acknowledged in court Wednesday that Dr. George Reardon was able to conceal his pedophilia — twice — from a rigorous academic review process that ultimately granted Reardon tenure. Lawyers for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, which is being sued by more than 90 of Reardon's abuse victims, called Dr. James W. Freston, retired medical chairman at the UConn Health Center, as a witness to support the central argument in the St. Francis defense: Reardon was a manipulator who succeeded in concealing his systematic abuse of children. The testimony by Freston, combined with that from other witnesses, suggested to jurors that Reardon, an endocrinologist, had become a sought-after figure in academic and medical circles at the same time that he was using a phony pediatric growth study at St. Francis to obtain unfettered access to vulnerable children. By the early 1980s, after two decades of secretly abusing hundreds of children, Reardon had come to be regarded, at least in central Connecticut, as a expert on pediatric growth — even though he lacked pediatric training. Hartford-area pediatricians regularly referred parents of children with suspected growth problems to Reardon, not knowing that he routinely subjected those children to months or years of abuse after enrolling them in his so-called growth study. The medical residents, interns and fellows whom St. Francis recruited consistently rated Reardon, the hospital's chief of endocrinology, as one of its most engaging and informative teachers. Reardon was granted privileges at Yale-New Haven Hospital and lectured students at Yale's medical school. He also lectured at St. Joseph College in West Hartford. At UConn's then-rapidly growing medical school in Farmington, Reardon was recognized for his facility for teaching. In 1980, UConn promoted him from assistant professor to associate professor. In 1983, the school awarded him tenure, turning his faculty position into a lifetime appointment. Reardon died in 1998. The St. Francis lawyers questioned Freston, who retired to coastal South Carolina in 1997, in an effort to convince a six-member civil jury that Reardon's deception at St. Francis was no different from what he did at UConn, where they implied that he duped everyone from nurses at the medical center to the university's board of trustees. Freston was testifying in the trial of the first of 93 lawsuits against St. Francis by adults who claim that Reardon abused them in his hospital offices when they were children. The suits claim that the abuse, which scarred the victims emotionally, resulted from the hospital's failure to supervise Reardon and protect children. Collectively, the victims are demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from St. Francis. Reardon was proposed for tenure at UConn in a nomination letter written by Dr. J. David Schnatz, who in 1983 was director of medicine at St. Francis. The nomination was seconded by Dr. Lawrence G. Raisz, chief of the division of endocrinology at the UConn Health Center. The nominating letters were packed with superlatives for Reardon, who by 1983 had been abusing children for more than 20 years. Raisz said, among other things, that Reardon "maintained an outstanding clinical facility" and taught at "the highest standards." While vetting Reardon, Freston said, UConn compiled a file of recommendations more than an inch thick. Everyone whose opinion was solicited — fellow endocrinologists, medical colleagues and students — supported Reardon. Freston said he could recall no criticism. The file was presented to the UConn medical school's promotion and tenure committee, which consisted of the division chiefs in its department of medicine, all of whom were tenured professors, Freston said. He said that the committee recommended tenure and that the recommendation was adopted by the university president and board of trustees. In 1980, Freston said, Reardon survived a similar review when he was promoted to associate professor. The hospital took testimony from two other defense witnesses Wednesday. Both were Reardon colleagues at St. Francis and both testified, as did Freston, that they were not aware of Reardon's ever being involved in misconduct or inappropriate behavior. Dr. Dominic Pasquale, a retired St. Francis specialist in hematology and oncology, testified that he worked in a hospital office directly across a hallway from that of Reardon. He said that patients waited to see both doctors in a communal area outside the offices. In answer to questions from hospital lawyers, Pasquale said he can recall seeing "nothing odd" about the patients waiting for Reardon. Freston, Pasquale and a third doctor, former St. Francis endocrinologist Dr. Martin Binstock, testified Wednesday that Reardon often made medical presentations that included photographic slides taken of patients, some of whom were partially dressed or undressed. The lawyer for the victim in this first trial presented evidence earlier that St. Francis bought large quantities of film for Reardon and that he took hundreds of obscene photographs of the children he abused under the guise of medical research. There also was earlier testimony that Reardon developed his own film in a darkroom in his West Hartford home, even though the hospital maintained a professional photo department for the convenience of its medical staff. More than 50,000 photographic slides depicting subjects of Reardon's so-called study in obscene poses were found hidden in a false wall in Reardon's basement after his death. Contact: emahony@courant.com
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